Black Thursday

Quick hitters:

Someone has uploaded to Google Video a wonderful highlight reel of Alex Ovechkin's young career. It's not fair some of the things this kid does. Personal favorites: The shot up under the bar in a shootout against Calgary, the goal from his back which may have been the best goal since Mike Legg, and the play against Nashville where he skates into a guy trying to check him, he knocks the Predator player over, and doesn't miss a stride. Just sick. It's almost a crime that he's wasting away in Washington. Can you imagine if he was in a major NHL market like Detroit, Toronto, or Montreal? It's sad because I really would love to see him play more often.

I downloaded the Measly Penny song that the Michigan football players recorded and Frat Boy Missionaries so graciously hosted (HT: MgoBlog for linking it). Sadly it is nowhere near as good as its Miami counterpart. No classic lines like "Multiply that bitch up dawg, you get my dick size", the intro wasn't as funny as "This song in its entirety is not meant to disrespect any women in its entirety", no arguments about if a rubber was worn or not. Granted the 7th Floor Crew is a lofty standard to hold anyone to, but the Mean Team doesn't measure up at all.

Black Thursday is already underway in the NFL with name guys like Stephen Davis and Lawyer Malloy amongst the early cuts. Basically no deal is good news for the Packers (at least for this upcoming season) as a fair number of the teams are over the cap and will have to cut some pretty talented players in an effort to comply with the cap by tomorrow. The Packers are one of about 5 teams with significant cap space--enough to make a major splash in free agency if they choose.

Jay Sharpe, a regular poster on two of the Packers boards I frequent, hosts a radio show out in California and attended the combine. According to this post, he was told by Reggie Bush that the Packers are one of the teams showing the most interest in moving up for him. Whether it's a smokescreen or actually true remains to be seen, but Sharpe is one of my favorite posters on those boards, and I believe that he was told what he says he was told. At this point though, I'm not so sure that I wouldn't prefer Green Bay to just stay where they're at and take Mario Williams, because he sounds like the second coming of Julius Peppers. 6'7" 295 and he's got a 40 inch vertical and runs a 4.7 40? Sign me up. This article is just glowing about his combine performance.

Tomorrow is going to be very interesting with all the cuts going on. Reading what the NFL writers from ESPN are saying, there could be some real big names let go. One thing that won't be happening is this:

Packers | Favre could be cut
Wed, 1 Mar 2006 15:11:10 -0800

Jarrett Bell, of USA Today, reports Green Bay Packers QB Brett Favre could possibly be cut Friday, March 3.

Yeah, I guess Favre could be cut. And tomorrow could start the next ice age. And Michigan hockey could learn how to play defense. And Spartan fans could not have an inferiority complex starting Friday....Buuuuut I bet they won't.

There Were Reasons Not to Panic?

So yeah, that whole not panicking about Michigan hockey thing? Forget I said that. If panicking is good enough for Red, it's good enough for me. Taking Noah Ruden out of the starting lineup in favor of Bill Sauer--who has about as much confidence between the pipes as my brother has in Dubya--prior to the last weekend of the regular season just reeks of panic. We now head into the postseason in the unenviable position of having absolutely no freaking idea who our starting goalie is. That's never a good thing.

It's probably a good thing that I opted for a post-Valentine's Day trip with the chica rather than trekking to Big Rapids (though I really did want to hit up the Tractor Supply Store, I'm not gonna lie) and then buying a ticket to watch that crap at Yost. I'm not sure what my reaction would've been had I seen that, but with the players' families sitting right in front of me, it's probably best I wasn't there.

Not too much good you can say about a team when they blow a 3 goal lead for the second time since 1988 second time since last April. I'm not going to skewer anyone for their play, because I didn't see the games, nor was I able to listen to them. What I've heard though? Same ole, same ole. Soft goals, bad defense, odd-man rushes up the wazoo.

Some posts on this weekend that I thought were very much worth reading from the Yost Post:

Alnike had one of the best posts I've seen on that board in recent memory, with his breakdown of a bunch of stats about this team and who needs to step up their game. The most telling stat:

In its last 12 games, in which Michigan is a pathetic 4-4-4, the team has either
had a lead, or been in a tie game in the 3rd period in all those games. By my
accounts, it pissed away 10 pts and only recovered 2 pts. vs tOSU when Caruso
let in the Turnbull beachball shot through his 5-hole.

-2 vs. MSU at JLA (5-3 lead, goalie, penalty kill)

-2 vs. tOSU at Yost (4-3 lead, goalies)

-1 vs. LSSU (2-2 tie, OT goal - Ruden)

-1 vs. UNO (3-3 tie, 3 goal comeback immediately thwarted)

-2 vs. UNO (4-2 2nd period lead, 1 goal lead in 3rd, Ruden)

-2 vs. FSU

I knew it was bad...didn't realize it was quite that bad.

Mike Spath also had a nice post of comments and observations. MHNet has an interesting theory as to why the team is struggling--one that the superstitious person in me whole-heartedly agrees with. After seeing what our basketball team has gone through the last two years, should we have really screwed with the hockey team's karma? 6 losses at Yost this year tells me everything I need to know about that one.

I'm teetering dangerously close to detaching the way I did with U of M football this year, accepting that it's going to be the worst year in recent memory and not getting worked up over the losses anymore. I think I may have been the only person not wearing red that was able to crack a smile after the Michigan/OSU game in football, and it's getting close to that point with this team. I miss freshman/sophomore year Al Montoya, Jed Ortmeyer, Mike Cammalleri, Andy Hilbert, and Mike Komisarek. And John Shouneyia.

Favre Not Done Yet

This makes me want to do a fucking backflip:

AP reports Green Bay Packers QB Brett Favre has been in touch with Packers general manager Ted Thompson and new head coach Mike McCarthy on an almost weekly basis of late, but there is nothing new to report regarding his decision to possibly retire. The fact that Favre is calling regularly from his Mississippi farm to check in would seem to be a positive sign that he is still open to returning for a 16th season. Thompson said the team has not established a deadline for Favre to make a decision. "We haven't really established a deadline," Thompson says. "I think all the parties know when a decision probably needs to be made." Ideally, that would be by the March 3rd start of free agency.

5 Reasons

Heading into the last weekend of the regular season, here are my 5 reasons to panic about the Michigan hockey team, and the 5 reasons you shouldn't panic about the rest of the year.

We'll get the bad out of the way first.

5 Reasons You Should Panic:

1) They still don't know how to play team defense: 30+ games into the year, don't you just get the feeling that if they don't know how to not give up odd-man rushes by now, they're never going to learn? Some of it has been bad pinches, some of it has been the forwards being more Paul Kariya than Kris Draper, but we've all been saying it for weeks...it needs to change. They make progress and then the next weekend it's back to the same old routine. In our own zone, I honestly think we do a great job. In transition though? It's ugly.

2) The goaltending has been--and probably will continue to be--iffy: This goes back to Alvaro saying "Adios" during the summer. Yes, I thought we'd be better off without him if it was going to be more of the Apathetic Al that we saw last season (and I'm not convinced it'd be any different with him in net right now). Enter Billy Sauer, who frankly just wasn't ready to be a full-time starting goaltender in college. He split time in the USHL last year, and what? 3 years ago he was playing JV hockey in New York? He could have really used a full year as a USHL starter. It's hard to say anything bad about Noah Ruden because, let's face it, he's not on par with some of the goalies we've had in the past, nor should anyone expect him to be. He's a walkon that inherited the starting role and he's done a better-than-passable job. You just have to come into the game knowing he's probably giving up 1 real weak one, bare minimum. But better-than-passable doesn't mean I've got confidence we can go to the NCAA title with him. If it was only a one-game tournament, sure. He's had some absolutely excellent games this year. But I don't know that he can put together 4 great games in a row. And that's what it would take.

3) Consistency: I just touched on it talking about Noah Ruden. This team has a major problem with stringing quality efforts together (and in a lot of cases, even bringing a quality effort for 60 minutes). At the top of their game, they're as good as anyone. The downer to that is we've only see that kind of performance for maybe 10 minutes at a time any given weekend. This team hasn't strung together back-to-back wins in a weekend since December 9th and 10th. Since then, they've only one back-to-back games twice. It's hard to believe they're going to run off four straight W's to win a title when they can't sweep a weekend series from a mediocre CCHA team.

4) Poor Performances on the Road: Ignoring the fact that they've dropped 5 games at Yost Ice Arena this season (who saw that coming??), this team has been worse when they've gotten away from the friendly confines. They're 6-7-3 in games not played at Yost. That doesn't bode well for a long tournament run when you take into account that the closest regional is 6 hours away and we potentially could end up playing Wisconsin in Green Bay, NoDak at Achtung Arena, or either of the Boston schools in Massachusetts.

5) Our Two "Game-Changing" Forwards Need to Get It Going: TJ Hensick and Andrew Cogliano are the two biggest X-Factors for us up front going into the playoffs. You know you're going to get a great effort out of "The Line" of Ebbett, Kal, and Kolarik. But the two forwards that can change the game the quickest as Hensick and Cogs. TJ, despite having points in 7 of his last 9 (and multiple points in 5 of those games) just looks like he's going at half-speed a lot of the time. There was a buzz for a little while that he wasn't 100% and that could have played a factor. But we've all seen just how good he can be (like last year when he was in the running for the Hobey) and if this team is going to make any kind of run toward a title, he needs to play at that kind of elite level.

Cogliano has gone 6 games without a point, and has only tallied points in 3 of his 15 games since coming back from World Juniors. Has he hit the freshman wall? I'm not sure. That would be hard to believe since St. Mike's played probably twice as many games last year on their way to a long run into the Canadian Junior A Tournament. Scorers go through slumps, and if he can get back to his earlier form (Points in 8 of 9 games in October and November) this team will be much better off.

Enough with the negatives.

5 Reasons You Shouldn't Panic:

1) At Some Point, the Power Play Has to Get Going. Doesn't it?: Since the GLI, the Wolverines are on an incredibly bad streak of going something like 9 for 97 on the Power Play. Despite that, they're still ranked 13th in the country with the man advantage. At some point they have to find something that works. On the plus side, they have had more success scoring even strength! If the power play can get even close to how it was at the start of the year, we're going to be ok offensively.

2) The Light Has Gone On For Some Guys: Particularly Tim Cook, Jason Dest, Tim Miller, and dare I say....Tyler Swystun? Cook and Dest were brutal at the start of the year, but since Cook scored his goal, they've been probably our two best defensemen in their own end (and Cook has even scored points in back-to-back games!). Tim Miller has been a joy to watch this year. He's just getting better and better, and in the last weekend at Yost, Swsytun showed glimpses of the ability we all heard he had. Guys like Cook, Dest, and Miller aren't going to win us a national championship, but at the same time, we can't win it without them playing well.

3) The Vets Are Leading By Example: Putting Ebbett, Kolarik, and Kaleniecki together was a stroke of genius. That line has been fabulous since they were first put together. Ebbett and Kal have done an outstanding job of leading by example out there, whether it be on the PK and forechecking like madmen, or scoring a big goal when we need one (Start of the 3rd period vs. OSU). Ebbett has 13 points in his last 9 games and has scored at least one point in 8 of them. Kolarik has points in 11 of 16 (with multiple points in 8 of them) and just ended a 4 game drought with 3 in the tie at Omaha. Kal has points in 7 of 10 since he came back from his injury.

4) The Talent is There: I've said it the whole time we've been in this slump....if the light ever goes on for them, look out! There's so much talent on this team. They can play with/beat anyone in the country, they just have to execute and do it. You look at guys that can without question step their game up a notch or two and you've got Hensick, Cogliano, Porter, Johnson, Hunwick, and I guess even Kolarik. Those are some big-time names, and if most of them can elevate their game, they can play with anyone.

5) Even Though They've Been Subpar, They've Been in Almost Every Game: As bad as Michigan has been, and as many games as you can say they've been outplayed, they haven't been that far off. Look at the games we've lost (going backwards): 1 goal, 1 goal in OT, 2 goals with an empty-netter, 3 at BGSU when we were awful, 2, 2, 5 vs. CC which doesn't count, 1, 2, 1, 3, 2. So you've only got 3 games the entire year where we were completely out-classed and had no shot to win (actually make it 4 because that 2-0 game against Sparty was just a complete abortion). But the point is, we've been playing like hell, and we haven't been getting killed. That bodes well for us if the lightbulb ever goes on.

And a bonus reason to feel positive:
6) The NCAA is Wide Open This Year: There's just no dominant team. Wisconsin had that look for most of the year until Elliot got hurt, but they struggled in his absence. But I have to say that they just didn't blow me away when I saw them at Yost. They kind of reminded me of those Michigan State Ryan Miller teams that were great in the regular season put didn't do much in the tournament. Miami has had an excellent year, but do I think that Michigan can't beat them on a neutral sheet? No way! We've beaten BC, granted it was their first game of the year. If you're naming the favorite coming into the tournament, who do you even pick? It's wide open, and if Red can get them to start playing, there's no reason they can't take a run at this thing. I keep coming back to this: 2 years ago, Denver was 5th in the WCHA. They lost in the first round of their conference tournament. They won the whole damn thing. And remember the Terrier Curse: Michigan loses when they are favored, they win in the years they're not expected to do anything.

Get it going boys, and let's take a shot at it! Go Blue!

Odds and Ends

Lots of odds and ends to tie up, since I haven’t had a lot of time to post lately:

First off, Michigan and Nebraska-Omaha: Disappointing weekend for sure. You have to feel like they left 2 points on the table this weekend, even if we shouldn’t have really been in position to get one of them. To get down by 3 goals and still have the heart to fight back shows me something, but then to give up the game winning goal six seconds after you tied the game up is just…I don’t have a word. Is it possible to do that any faster? If Nikiforuk started at center ice with no defenders whatsoever, would it take him at least four seconds to score?

Note that on 3 of the 4 UNO goals Friday night, a defenseman (or two) screwed up. I really wish I had a stat to back this up (and who knows, it may even be the norm for the country), but I’m convinced that 80% of the goals we allow are on rushes and not a result of a team just setting up in our end. I really feel like we do a good job in our own zone once everyone is back. It’s just a rare occasion that that’s the case. A commitment to team defense (by everyone) would go a long way to helping this team. I’ve pretty much given up hope that that’s going to happen now, if it hasn’t happened already though.

I guess the bottom line is this: Defensemen need to do a better job playing defense, forwards need to do a better job scoring, goalie needs to do a better job stopping the puck, power play needs to score an effing goal once in awhile. At least the penalty kill is good.

Saturday night: Shocker, another blown game. This time they blew two 2-goal leads, letting Omaha finally tie the game up with about two minutes to play. Once again, no power play goals—0 for 3, with a whopping 2 shots on goal—putting them up to 20 straight without a goal.

From reading the game wrap it sounds like we had some excellent goalie play coupled with a pair of goals that he’d like to have back. All-in-all a pretty typical Michigan hockey weekend. I didn’t listen to a second of either game, and yet I feel like I could paint a pretty accurate picture as to what happened, since it’s been going on for months.

On to Daytona: Thank God racing’s back. Overall I thought it was a pretty good race. Lots of leaders, lots of lead changes, lots of 3-wide racing. Tony Stewart had everyone covered, but he drove like a fricken moron and threw it away. That guy just cracks me up. It wasn’t more than a week ago that he was complaining about how they were going to kill someone out there, and then he (admittedly) intentionally wrecks Matt Kenseth at 190 miles per hour. And true to form, Nascar is completely inconsistent with their penalties. Yes, Kenseth deserved a black flag for ramming Stewart coming out of the pits, but when all’s said and done, how does Kenseth end up with more of a penalty than Stewart? Is it really a penalty to put someone at the back of the longest line a) at a restrictor plate track and b) when he probably needs to pit anyway? Then Kyle Busch gets a black flag, can’t get down the racetrack to serve it, the caution comes out, and they let him serve it under yellow. What dude?

It really amuses me that Nascar apparently frowns more upon swearing on TV than they do on intentionally wrecking someone in front of the entire field. Junior loses 20 or so points last year for saying “Shit” on TV, but Stewart, Jarrett, Robby Gordon, etc. don’t even get a slap on the wrist for intentionally wrecking another driver. It’s unreal.

Jeff Gordon drove a helluva race. He fought through a wreck with Stewart, losing third gear, blowing a tire, and finally a wreck with McMurray. Up until the wreck with McMurray he was still in contention for a win. He deserved a better finish than he ended up with.

NBC’s coverage is horrible. Too many commercials, they go “through the field” too much, they don’t keep you aware of what’s happened to guys on the track (e.g. Harvick went from 4th to 37th a lap down and we never heard a word about what happened to him). And their announcers just grate on me. I couldn’t be happier that they lost the bid for next year’s package. Good riddance.

Junior cost himself three spots at the end of the race with what was honestly a pretty futile attempt at pulling out a victory. I give him credit for trying though. I’d much rather have a guy at least trying to win races, rather than doing what Kenseth did his championship year, just finishing seventh every race.

The NBA All-Star game: I didn’t see much of the actual game, though it was nice to see pretty much everyone agree that the Pistons won it for the East. The Skills Competition was pretty darn good though. I like the obstacle course, there’s some originality in the dunk contest again, and the three point contest is still a classic. The dunk contest was the highlight though. It was outstanding this year. Nate Robinson dunking in it of itself would get me to watch but to see him throw one down jumping over Spud Webb in the process was just fabulous. Iguodala wins for creativity though, with his dunk off the back of the backboard. Was there anyone watching that actually thought he was going to pull that one off? I wonder if the 76ers brass was having a heart attack after he almost decapitated himself on his first attempt.

I disagree with Bill Simmons about Robinson’s last dunk of the night. I feel like it was worth waiting for. If he had been able to pull it off from half court—like he almost did on the second or third attempt—it would’ve brought the house down. Yes it sucked that it took him 15 tries to get it right—and that he moved in to the 3-point line in the process, but it was still a sweet dunk. Iguodala should have won, but of the three most memorable dunks of the night, Robinson had two of them.

I do, however, like Simmons’ idea of increasing the money payouts, adding H-O-R-S-E and a half-court shot contest to the night. They could get rid of the shooting stars and the obstacle course (though I do like the latter) in favor of those.

As for Michigan/MSU basketball: Did anyone really expect anything different, especially after Chris Hunter went out? If Harris was completely healthy and Sims stayed out of foul trouble, maybe then you’ve got a shot without Hunter. But being down Abram and Hunter—and essentially down Harris and Smith—and with Sims in foul trouble, that spelled disaster. That means that your two bigs in there are Petway and Brown, neither of whom is a real big offensive threat and you’ve only got one legit guard in there with Horton. Add that to great games out of Shannon Brown, Ager, and Neitzel [insensitive German comment deleted], and you’ve got a loss on the road.

I still think this team gets into the tournament. They’ll beat Indiana, and they should win at least a game in the Big 10 Tournament. That should be more than enough, especially if the committee sees that the team is getting healthy (please Basketball Gods, please!).

That’s all for now, since I should actually get some work done today. There will be a Dale Earnhardt tribute coming. Wanted to get it done on the 5 year anniversary, but it didn’t happen (no internet). Also, the Jack Johnson Milestone Watch will be updated.

Michigan 4, LSSU 2

Belated thoughts from a Saturday night victory:

Don’t look now, but Jack Johnson only has 2 PIMs total in his last 4 games and that penalty didn’t lead to us being short-handed. He’s done a nice job of toning it down since his last ejection.

Much better effort Saturday night than Friday. Michigan came out in the first period and actually looked like they wanted to be playing hockey, rather than chasing tail or yelling out the window making fun of Asian girls that can’t parallel park (yeah Mike Woodford!).

Once again, The Line set the tone with Kal and Ebbett accounting for 3 of Michigan’s goals in the first period. Kal’s second goal was about as big of a blooper as you’ll ever seen. He was basically in all alone, and when he went to shoot, he biffed on the ice and somehow was able to shoot the puck on his way down. It got past Jakaitis in classic Junior-Year-Al-Montoya-“He’d-like-to-have-that-one-back” fashion and Kal had one of the ugliest goals you’ll ever see. Kal has points in 8 of 9 games since he’s come back from his injury and Ebbett has points in 6 of 7. That line is carrying this team right now. A friend in my ticket group put it best, “Good thing him and Ebbett are leaving this year.” Yeah.

Tyler Swystun got on the scoresheet for the second straight game with a beautiful give-and-go with Danny Fardig. Swystun really played well this weekend. It wasn’t just that he tallied points in both games. He made a couple of really nice backchecks Saturday, and showed the first flashes we’ve seen of that high-end offensive skill that he supposedly has. 1-1—2 for the weekend, but he could’ve easily had another goal at the bare minimum.

If any psychology student is reading this and feels like doing a case study into the effect that confidence can have on an athlete, you need to look no further than Tim Cook. Honest to God, he looks like a completely different player from the start of the season. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of a time he’s screwed up since the tie game at Munn, and he even played pretty well in that one. The highlight for him Saturday night was a crushing hit on a guy in the first period. Yes I just used the phrase crushing hit in reference to something Tim Cook did.

Ruden was solid in net. I don’t think I’d characterize either goal as his fault, which you couldn’t say on Saturday night. As long as he doesn’t really screw up, we’re not going to see Billy Sauer the rest of the way.

Apart from that 45 second span in the first period, the team defense was overall pretty darn good. I did notice that when Jack rushed the puck, a forward made sure to get back and play defense on a couple of occasions (both times that I actually looked for it). The power play is still absolutely abysmal. What happened to Rohlfs in front of the net? He was out on the point this weekend.

Kevin Porter’s Kris Draper syndrome continued Saturday night. He’d miss the side of a barn if he was shooting from the slot right now. He’s in a funk but I have every confidence he’ll get out of it. I’m not worried about Porter at all. Hensick on the other hand, looks like he’s only willing to skate hard for 2 or 3 shifts in any given game. You can’t have a preseason Hobey Baker candidate going roughly two months without having goals in back-to-back games.

Other notes: The power play was 0-8 on the weekend with 8 shots on goal total. Awful. And we got smoked on faceoffs both games. 33 out of 71 on Friday and 31 out of 70 Saturday. AJ Jenks can’t get here soon enough.

I don’t think it was a coincidence that we had Piotrowski finally and subsequently had probably the two best officiated hockey games of the season. I’ve never been a Pio fan, but after seeing what else the CCHA has to offer in great detail this season, I’ve come around. More of him, please.

It was a little disappointing that Michigan came out and looked like they were going to blow LSSU out of the building, and then a 45 second lapse in team defense turned a 4-0 lead into a 4-2 hockey game. The 2nd and 3rd periods were extremely dull and I zoned out for a pretty fair portion of them. It wouldn’t make me cry if we don’t see LSSU again this year.

There are signs that this team is turning it around—which sounds funny to say after they lost that game Friday night, but I believe it’s true. LSSU isn’t going to remind anyone of the late 80s Oilers or anything, but they did a pretty nice job defensively this weekend. It looks like Jack has toned it down some and the forwards are doing a better job of getting back on the defense rushes. Get the power play going—which it will, there’s too much talent for it not to—and keep making a commitment to playing defense and there’s still hope that this can turn into a successful season.

LSSU 3, Michigan 2 (ot)

First off, post of the year by Mike Spath on The Wolverine.

Gents, wouldn't it be far nicer to let 6 or GFunk post when they have something as opposed to constantly begging for information.

That has been one of the most absolutely annoying developments in message board history. I really think 75% of the posts the last month have started "Mods, 6, GFunk........." Lord. Thank you Spath.

Now onto that abortion of a hockey game:

I hate hockey games like that. The trap bores me silly. But frankly, I'm not so sure that's not the style I would play against Michigan. Play defense, limit their quality scoring chances, because you know we're going to get impatient and you know we're going to make 4 or 5 big mistakes throughout the course of the game. You just have to capitalize on a couple of em and you're in business. Plus you know we're going to give up at least one terrible goal every game (last night it was the first one. How'd that go in exactly?)

Honestly, I'd have a hard time picking out anyone that played well last night, and I'd have trouble picking out anyone who sucked. It was just a boring, boring, boring hockey game. I hate playing LSSU.

One person I will say played well was Tyler Swystun. That was the first time in a LONG time that he's shown anything indicating he could potentially be more than a 12th forward in college. Great play on the goal he got an assist on, and he had a really nice effort in close that almost ended up in the net.

Apart from that, it was another game with a lot of low-percentage shots. Probably the most boring 70-80 shot hockey game I've ever seen.

What the hell was our team doing on the overtime goal? It looked like we got the puck cleared and then all 3 of our forwards just completely stopped skating, like they were either expecting someone else to go get it, or they thought the play was gonna be blown dead. At least Hensick admitted postgame that they screwed up on that one....

We're just not a very good hockey team. But like I've said all along, I bet Denver fans were saying the same thing 2 years ago. If the light finally goes on, no one's going to want to play them. Keep playing like this, and we're 1 and done for the second time in our history...

It just scares me that I'm starting to feel about this team the way I feel about the football team right now. I get excited as all getup when they score/win, but when they lose I just can't get mad about it.

5 home losses in a season? Are you freaking kidding me? Five?? I guess it's only fitting with Michigan football losing 3 at home this year and the Packers dropping 5 at Lambeau.....Awesome.